U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 1999

Bryce Molder

BRYCE MOLDER: Not real, real surprised. I told somebody with the camera crews, I told them: You have to expect the magnificent with your opponent. And so, of course, I'm not going to -- if he hits it in there, expect it to come out. But it happened so quick, I didn't really have much time to think a whole lot about it. But he was off the green over to the left. And I told my caddy when I walked up to the green, I said, "He's going to chip that in." And that's more just you kind of tell yourself that just so that if it happens, you're not surprised, it doesn't hit you. So I try to prepare myself somewhat like that.

BRYCE MOLDER: I thought we both played really solid. We didn't play great, like we didn't hit a whole lot of fairways, but there were not a whole lot of bogeys out there for this golf course. I'm not sure what I ended up, probably right about even par, and he was maybe 1- or 2-over. And it got windy a little bit. He made two good par-saving putts on the first two holes. And then I got a really good break on the 3rd hole. I was up next to a fence, which was the out-of-bounds fence, but the road got me; and I made a drop and made a long putt for par. And I made a birdie; he made a couple of birdies. I missed a short putt on 12, the par-3. About a 3-footer uphill. And I don't think I even hit the hole. That put me 2-down. And I happened to win 14, with a par, which is a par-5, really tough par-5. And he bogeyed 16, and I birdied 17. And then 18, I don't know, we both made par. Maybe he made bogey or something like that.

BRYCE MOLDER: Right. It has to be a reasonable shot before you can try to take relief like that. I was actually surprised that I could take relief, because it got me away from the fence. But you can always ask. And it ended up -- you kind of almost feel guilty about it, because I didn't deserve it or whatever. But when they told me I landed on the last part of the fringe, I actually saw my ball mark, and it bounced over 15 yards of rough. So you get some breaks, and you don't get some of the breaks. But he made some good par-saving putts the first two holes; so I kind of said: All right, we're even, let's go play.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah, I think any time you feel like you're kind of -- the other person has the edge, and even if you tie the hole, especially in that situation, it's momentum. Not as much as winning the hole, but the other player feels like they're going to win the hole, and all of a sudden you tie, and it's almost like they lose the hole. So it's pretty good momentum on something like that.

BRYCE MOLDER: It was tough. It was real tough. But at the same time, I mean, I saw in the qualifying rounds that two or three or four holes is a lot of golf. That's a day's worth of golf on most courses. And I don't expect him to mess up in any way, and you don't have to out here. If you don't hit a good shot, you get penalized somewhat, and sometimes you really get penalized. And he did on 16. He hit a fairly decent drive, which on most courses would probably be in the fairway. And it's down there, and he really has no option but to chip out to where I was. But at that point, he tried to go for it and just couldn't get a club on it. But that's a fun way to win a match, because you always learn something when you're in that situation. And maybe the next time you're in that situation, you can take that and use it as your advantage. But at the same time, it would be a lot easier to win on the 12th hole and be about 4- or 5-under, that kind of deal.

BRYCE MOLDER: I think so. I think I made -- right after the Open, I made some decisions and worked with my golf pro, and made some adjustments that may not help me even this year. I learned a lot from the way Tiger went about it the last couple of years. Everybody thought he had his hey-day and this and that. And he made some changes, and he kept on -- he didn't win, but he said: I'm playing good, I'm getting there, I'm getting better, I'm getting better. He's going to be a pretty tough guy to beat for the next 10 or 15 years, because he's done some things and worked on some things that may not have helped him that next week. And, of course, I wanted to be ready to play this week, and the Western Am was a big tournament. But I started working on a few things that I'm going to need to be able to do, like hitting more fairways. I've worked with my driver a lot on position on the tee on turning it with the hole, or turning it against the wind, or turning against the slope and that kind of thing, when normally, I just try to play my normal shot. So right now maybe I can't play that way, but I'm getting there. And so overall this summer, I've played well, I felt. I think the one bad tournament I had was the Southern Amateur, and I got like 20th. But I really felt like I played pretty well, and just got nothing out of it, and that happens sometimes. So it's a short summer, but overall pretty good.

BRYCE MOLDER: That's a tough question. I felt like I had a good chance when they picked those five players. I felt like I had a good chance of being in that five. And I don't feel like I was far off, just from what I've heard from certain people. And you don't know the criteria in that kind of deal; so who knows where you stand. But that just told me that I needed to go and play some more. I still hadn't quite earned the spot. And that's okay. It would have been nice to come out here and know there's a little bit less pressure. But at the same time, it's the U.S. Amateur, and you've got everything riding on it, anyway. And so a little bit more pressure. Maybe a little bit more incentive. Maybe I worked a little harder, but there's a lot riding. There's a lot at stake out there, and I didn't think about that one time today out there.

BRYCE MOLDER: It's helped me learn. I think I've gotten to learn at a better pace than he had to do. He's dealing with a lot right now, and that's part of the reason why he's not playing real well right now is he's got so much expectation this week,, almost so much that you can't play great. And so he's put in a tough spot right now. I got to watch him and see what he did and go and just relax and get to play my game, and not worry about whatever I was going to say if I didn't play well, like he has to. He doesn't win a tournament; it's like, why? You finished 20th in The Masters, but you can't win this college tournament. He kind of has to deal with that, and I don't have to. I'll be honest with you, I would rather have been in his shoes playing in the Open and The Masters a couple of times and that kind of deal, but I think for the long run, I think it helped me out.

BRYCE MOLDER: It's a par-5, and it's really, really important to get it in the fairway off the tee, and I did that. And then I kind of went to sleep and hit it in the rough from there. But he still had probably close to 180 to 190 left uphill into the wind, and so -- into a really tough green. So I knew I still had a chance, and I chipped out from the rough, and had about 70 yards left and hit it close and made a really good putt there right in the middle of the hole. And that was confidence just seeing it go right in the middle, and also winning the hole. But that was big because 1-down, 2-down and 3-down are really different. 3-down, you're in control, or they're in control and you need almost a miracle. 2-down, you're kind of sitting on the edge. 1-down, you know one more and it's all even. That was a big deal to get back to 1-down with four holes left, and that's a lot of golf with these holes.